D. James
D. James
judgement may matter
It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed.
secret contentment want
The secret of contentment is never to allow yourself to want anything which reason tells you you haven't a chance of getting.
cat animal merciful
We are often more merciful to our animals [cats] than we are to each other.
writing scientist there-comes-a-time
There comes a time when every scientist, even God, has to write off an experiment.
loneliness more-time needed
Most of my life I have needed more time to be on my own.
fighting stupidity together
It's possible to fight intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism when they come separately. When you get all three together it's probably wiser to get out, if only to preserve your sanity.
unique murder crime
Murder is the unique crime, the only one for which we can never make reparation to the victim.
successful feelings done
the most successful marriages were always based on both partners feeling that they had done rather well for themselves.
daughter hurt children
The weekend break had begun with the usual resentment and had continued with half-repressed ill humour. It was, of course, his fault. He had been more ready to hurt his wife's feelings and deprive his daughter than inconvenience a pub bar full of strangers. He wished there could be one memory of his dead child which wasn't tainted with guilt and regret.
want looks protection
I don't want anyone to look to me, not for protection, not for happiness, not for love, not for anything.
race mind crumbling
Without the hope of posterity, for our race if not for ourselves, without the assurance that we being dead yet live, all pleasures of the mind and senses sometimes seem to me no more than pathetic and crumbling defences shored up against our ruin.
sex religion modern
The modern holy trinity is money, sex and celebrity.
order ideas guilt
I love the idea of bringing order out of disorder which is what the mystery is about. I like the way in which it affirms the sanity of human life and exorcises irrational guilts.
father men land
The world of the terminally ill is the world of neither the living nor the dead. I have watched others since I watched my father, and always with a sense of their strangeness. They sit and speak, and are spoken to, and listen, and even smile, but in spirit they have already moved away from us and there is no way we can enter their shadowy no-man’s-land.